The Sitch: P1 posts a picture of the kiss in Disney's Sleeping Beauty. P2 says that it's generally considered sexual assault to kiss an unconscious woman you don't even know. P1 asks why it's a big deal since it's "just a story."
Except, of course, there's no such thing as "just a story." Stories aren't created in the void, they are created by brains, and they are generally created for the purpose of consumption by other brains. It is therefore reasonable to ask ourselves what influenced the shape of their creation, and what makes them tasty for consumption.
In this particular case, the Sleeping Beauty story requires a good deal of logical leaps. For one thing, True Love's Kiss is not standard medical practice when trying to wake real people from comas. A whole fictional universe had to be created in which a kiss can have this effect. Then, the author had to place a character into that coma, and chose to do so to the woman.
So, yes, if we accept the story's premises, we might agree that it's acceptable to kiss an unconscious woman, in the same way that we might agree that it's okay for paramedics to perform CPR on real unconscious women. However, we can't escape the fact that the whole situation first had to be manufactured, and that the author chose to do so.
Which is why it's reasonable to ask why. Why did the author choose to have a kiss be what could wake her? Why did the author choose to put the woman in the coma so that it was the man who had to kiss her? What cultural and personal assumptions was the author drawing from in constructing that story?
No matter how you end up answering those questions, one thing is clear: There's no such thing as "just a story."
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